Neely v. Wilson, 418 S.W.3d 52, 59 (Tex.2013). They also sued DMN for DTPA violations. Utilities Law There was no evidence that appellees published a false statement of fact. We conclude otherwise. West successfully ran for mayor of a Utah town. As the Tatums urge, the service they bought was Paul's obituary. Obituaries Section. Landfill, Inc., 434 S.W.3d 142, 15657 (Tex.2014) (citing Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 349 (1974)). What is the column's gist regarding the Tatums? That is, as Neely illustrates, enough to raise a genuine fact issue on the fair comment privilege. Id. My column told them nothing they didn't already know. And, in his deposition, Blow testified that he thought that people who knew both what the obituary said and that Paul shot himself would recognize the reference in his column. See Civ. court opinions. O. Through honesty, she's trying to erase some of the shame and stigma that compounds and prolongs mental illness. The Tatums son shot himself hours after he was involved in a serious car crash in 2010, according to court records. He reviewed black box recorder data from the Tatums' vehicle that was involved in the accident, reviewed photographs of the vehicle, and interviewed the person who inspected the vehicle after the accident. featuring summaries of federal and state Smith v. Deneve, 285 S.W.3d 904, 909 (Tex.App.Dallas 2009, no pet.). Stay up-to-date with how the law affects your life. If you have STRONG suspicions to whom do you turn them over? Id. 4. Please try again. The Seventh Circuit said in dicta that these statements were probably nonactionable as obvious statements of opinion, but the court held that Haynes's claims failed because he alleged no pecuniary injury from these statements. (A public controversy is not simply a matter of interest to the public; it must be a real dispute, the outcome of which affects the general public or some segment of it in an appreciable way.). With staffers in D-FW, Austin, Washington and along the Mexican border, we follow the story whatever it goes to deliver the deepest reporting in the Lone Star State. Subscribe https://t.co/MqPw2ZUctn In light of Milkovich, Neely, and Bentley, we conclude that the column's gist that the Tatums were deceptive when they wrote Paul's obituary is sufficiently verifiable to be actionable in defamation. See Civ. App.Dallas Dec. 30, 2015, pet. at 10. Public figure status is a question of law for the court. For the reasons discussed below, we conclude that their cases are distinguishable or otherwise unpersuasive. We assume without deciding that the defamatory publication in this case generally involved a matter of public concern (preventing suicides), and the Tatums do not dispute that appellees are media defendants. b. %PDF-1.5 % We conclude that there was more than a scintilla of evidence showing more than a mere failure to conduct a reasonable investigation. hbbd``b`@q?`]$^@' BD A:X %@b5$t.#'PFF 6 He was an excellent and popular student, an outstanding athlete, and had no history of mental illness. Appellees, however, do not contend that the Tatums are public officials or general-purpose public figures. Prac. They also produced evidence from which a reasonable jury could find that (i) Blow misrepresented his investigation and sources of information and (ii) Blow had some motive not to probe into the column's truth regarding the Tatums and the obituary. If the plaintiff is a public official or a public figure, the required culpability is elevated from negligence to actual malice; that is, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant published the defamatory statement with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard as to whether it was true or false. The summary judgment evidence includes an excerpt from Blow's deposition in which he testified about another time when he wrote a column about two obituaries that had been published about the same decedent. See Waste Mgmt. Free Newsletters Zoning, Planning & Land Use. The account about Pillsbury states that his company fabricated reports that Pillsbury had suffered a heart attack when actually he had shot himself to death. Family Law Our ePaper and live News feed are now together in one app. 3 On June 20, 2010Father's Day, and about one month after Paul's suicidethe paper published a column by Blow entitled "Shrouding Suicide Leaves its Danger Unaddressed." 4 Subscribe to Justia's Cf. Id. In their second appellate issue, the Tatums contend that the trial court erred by granting summary judgment on their DTPA claims against DMN. Civ. Id. But because the accusation was an opinion, the trial court properly granted summary judgment in favor of Petitioners.The Tatum filed suit alleging libel and libel per se against Petitioners alleging that the column at issue defamed them. 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Copyright 2023, Thomson Reuters. Am. Yet we're nearly blind to the greater threat of self-inflicted violence. We do not address this question here, however, because we conclude that the Tatums raised a genuine fact issue regarding falsity even if they bore the burden. Appellees also direct us to Haynes v. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 8 F.3d 1222 (7th Cir.1993). In addition to their libel claims, the Tatums also asserted DTPA claims against DMN. Issue One: Did the trial court err by dismissing the Tatums' libel claims? Later in the opinion, the Court held that the defendant's statement that Milkovich committed perjury was sufficiently factual to be susceptible of being proved true or false. Id. Founded in 1885, The Dallas Morning is North Texas' largest news team. Crediting the Tatums' evidence as we must, we conclude that a reasonable factfinder could find that the column's gist was false. He made his way home from the accident scene and began drinking champagne. By statute, a newspaper or other periodical enjoys a privilege against libel actions regarding the publication of certain matters, including (i) a fair, true, and impartial account of an official proceeding to administer the law, Civ. These cases are distinguishable because the case before us does not turn on the verifiability of the column's statement about the cause of Paul's suicide. But I don't think we should feel embarrassment at all. As the Court notes, the obituary stated that their son died "as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident." Their son had shot himself after he had been involved in a car accident. The Neely court explained the fair comment privilege as follows: Comments based on substantially true facts are privileged if fair; comments that assert or affirm false statements of fact are not privileged. Without naming the Tatums, Blow quoted from the obituary, which said the teen died from injuries sustained in a car accident, and wrote that suicide remains cloaked in such secrecy, if not outright deception., The court's opinion said that in accusing the Tatums of deception, the column was reasonably capable of being defamatory. The Tatums wrote an obituary for Paul and paid DMN to publish the obituary in the Dallas Morning News newspaper. See id. Bankruptcy Appellees make a threshold argument that the Tatums must satisfy the standard for libel per se because they did not plead or prove libel per quod or special damages. Civ. Conversely, a publication that consists of statements that are literally true when read in isolation can still convey a false and defamatory meaning by omitting or juxtaposing facts. Health Care Law Civil Rights Appellees argue that the column is a fair comment on a matter of public concern, specifically society's tendency to avoid open discussion of suicide and how that leaves its dangers underestimated. This privilege, however, applies only if the comments are based on substantially true facts. The plaintiff must also prove damages unless the defamatory statements are defamatory per se. Accordingly we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. Criminal Law Viewed in the light most favorable to the Tatums, the evidence raised a genuine issue of material fact as to the actual malice element. No. Id. We remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. Accordingly, there is expert evidence supporting the Tatums' theory that Paul suffered a brain injury that made him suicidal. Paul died from a gunshot wound to the head. Some obituary readers tell me they feel guilty for having such curiosity about how people died. See Neely, 418 S.W.3d at 71 ([T]he allegedly defamatory statement cannot be what brought the plaintiff into the public sphere; otherwise, there would be no private figures defamed by media defendants.). Id. The Tatums wrote an obituary for Paul and paid DMN to publish the obituary in the Dallas Morning News newspaper. Reckless disregard means that the publisher entertained serious doubts about the publication's truth or had a high degree of awareness of the publication's probable falsity. Bentley, 94 S.W.3d at 591; see also N.Y. Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 27980 (1964). In part, we don't talk about suicide because we don't talk about the illness that often underlies itmental illness. Applying the Milkovich analysis and considering the accusations in context, the court held that the statements were actionable statements of fact. But, here he did not attempt to contact the Tatums before publishing the column at issue in this case. The evidence also included emails by Blow in which he said things like this: Please understand that the vast, vast majority of my readers had no inkling to the identity of the family. Communications Law The court noted that the defendant had repeatedly stated that his accusations of corruption were based on objective, provable facts and on evidence that he had seen. TermsPrivacyDisclaimerCookiesDo Not Sell My Information, Begin typing to search, use arrow keys to navigate, use enter to select, Stay up-to-date with FindLaw's newsletter for legal professionals. Based on his investigation and experience, Kass concluded that Paul sustained a brain injury in the auto accident and that Paul would not have committed suicide but for the car accident and brain injury. WFAATV, Inc.,978 S.W.2d at 572. Legal Ethics The Tatums argue that [t]he false gist of the Column is that [they] dishonestly characterized their son's death in the Obituary as a means to shroud his suicide in secrecy. The first question is whether an ordinarily intelligent person could construe the column as conveying that gist. Karen Misko took the post to be directed at her and sued Johns for libel. Add . & Com.Code Ann. Appellees argue that a public controversy existed over the official cause of Paul's death. FindLaw.com Free, trusted legal information for consumers and legal professionals, SuperLawyers.com Directory of U.S. attorneys with the exclusive Super Lawyers rating, Abogado.com The #1 Spanish-language legal website for consumers, LawInfo.com Nationwide attorney directory and legal consumer resources. The Tatums' live pleading asserted Libel as count 1 and Libel per se as count 2. Id. 73.002(b)(1)(B). Alabama asked the U.S. Supreme Court to freeze the district court's injunction, which the Court did by a 5-4 decision pending a merits decision. The Tatums timely responded. Appellees also assert that the obituary's omission of Paul's suicide shows that it was in fact a deception. But as discussed above, deception implies intent to deceive, and the Tatums raised a genuine fact issue as to whether they had such an intent. In short, there must first be a controversy before it can be a public one. at 62; McIlvain v. Jacobs, 794 S.W.2d 14, 15 (Tex.1990). One expert explained the severity of Paul's auto accident, and the other opined that Paul committed suicide because of a brain injury sustained in that accident. Id. Defamation has two forms: slander and libel. The actual column, however, can be read to allow and encourage the reader to conclude that the Tatums had no basis for attributing Paul's death to injuries sustained in the earlier car crash and that they wanted to deceive the obituary's readers about the cause of Paul's death, perhaps to conceal their own failure to save his life through an intervention. After the accident, he began sending incoherent text messages to friends. Calling someone a liar and accusing someone of perjury, as occurred in those cases, both implicate the person's mental state, because both liar and perjury denote the willful telling of an untruth. We thus conclude that Denton Publishing Co. is still controlling law. dallas morning news v tatum oyezitalian catering delray beach. Newspapers, Inc. v. Hepps, 475 U.S. 767, 77576 (1986); see also Turner, 38 S.W.3d at 116; Klentzman v. Brady, 456 S.W.3d 239, 26364 (Tex.App.Houston [1st Dist.] Thus, if the column's false gistthat the Tatums wrote Paul's obituary with the intent to deceiveis more damaging to the Tatums' reputations than a true statement would have been, then the gist is not substantially true. The column's headline was Shrouding suicide leaves its danger unaddressed. (Emphasis added). We held that these affidavits provided clear and specific evidence that the post was about Misko, even though Misko was not named in it. 0 It took a while for honesty to come to the AIDS epidemic. 73.005(a) (truth is a defense to a libel action); see also Neely, 418 S.W.3d at 62 (mentioning the defense of truth and citing 73.005); Randall's Food Mkts., Inc. v. Johnson, 891 S.W.2d 640, 646 (Tex.1995) (In suits brought by private individuals, truth is an affirmative defense to slander.) (footnote omitted). Rather, we conclude only that it is capable of having that meaning. Id. at 571; see also Einhorn v. LaChance, 823 S.W.2d 405, 411 (Tex.App.Houston [1st Dist.] Accordingly, because there is no evidence of a public controversy that could make the Tatums limited-purpose public figures, we conclude that the Tatums are private figures for purposes of this summary judgment appeal. 5. We construe an allegedly defamatory publication as a whole, in light of the surrounding circumstances, based on how a person of ordinary intelligence would perceive it. We do not consider the defamatory statement itself in determining whether the plaintiff is a public figure. c.Did the Tatums raise a genuine fact issue as to negligence and actual malice? Antitrust Slander is an oral defamation. of Tex., Inc. v. Tex. It then denied rehearing on September 28, 2018 File Closed Opinions Issued Case Events Parties and Counsel Opinions May 11, 2018 endstream endobj startxref Morbid curiosity, they call it apologetically. Did the Tatums raise a genuine fact issue that appellees acted with the necessary degree of culpability? We conclude that the trial court erred by granting summary judgment on their libel claims. Like a cat putting its nose to the wind, that curiosity is part of how we gauge the danger out there for ourselves and our loved ones. filed). Justice Brown delivered the unanimous . at 60. Kass reviewed Cargill's report about the accident, interviewed the Tatums, reviewed Paul's conduct before and after the accident as reported by his friends, and reviewed other documents such as Paul's medical history and death certificate. Learn more about FindLaws newsletters, including our terms of use and privacy policy. In re Lipsky, 460 S.W.3d at 596. To qualify for the fair comment privilege, a publication must be (i) a reasonable and fair comment on or criticism of (ii) a matter of public concern or an official act of a public official (iii) published for general information. 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Of a Utah town before it can be a public figure status is a of! Family law Our ePaper and live News feed are now together in one app libel claims the... He made his way home from the accident, he began sending incoherent text messages to friends evidence! Not contend that the obituary 's omission of Paul 's obituary for libel a reasonable factfinder could find the. Do you turn them over on the fair comment privilege serious car crash 2010... By dismissing the Tatums leaves its danger unaddressed he did not attempt to contact the Tatums wrote an obituary Paul... Brain injury that made him suicidal argue that a reasonable factfinder could find that the trial court erred granting! 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